Blog Tour: Dear Thing by Julie Cohen

Today I'm delighted to be taking part in Julie Cohen's blog tour for Dear Thing, with a review and a giveaway!

 

Claire and Ben have been trying for a baby for years. When their latest round of IVF results in a miscarriage, Claire decides it’s time to give up. She can’t keep putting herself through this, both mentally and physically, but then they are faced with another option to have the child they are so desperate for.

Single mother Romily would do anything for her best friend, Ben. Along with his wife Claire, Ben has always been there for her, helping her to raise her daughter, so she decides it’s time she repaid them. Romily offers to act as a surrogate for the couple. It will only be nine months of her life and then Ben will have everything he has always wanted. But being a surrogate isn’t as easy as Romily first thought. Especially as she is in love Ben.

Dear Thing is a heart wrenching tale of love, loss and fulfilling dreams. Claire is desperate to hold her child in her arms but it doesn’t seem possible. All around her, friends and family are starting families and it breaks her heart that she cannot share their joy. It was saddening to watch the hope seep from her as the dream of motherhood moved further and further away. She is wary when Romily first offers to carry her child. She doesn’t know Romily that well, but it is more than that. Claire’s hopes have been raised so many times and she’s afraid of going through that all again, only to come crashing down if it doesn’t work, so I could totally understand her reluctance.

I also felt for Romily. She’s been in love with Ben for years, but he sees her as nothing more than a friend, no matter how close that friendship is. Romily is quite impulsive and she doesn’t think things through before she goes ahead with the surrogacy. Being pregnant is hard enough with the lack of sleep and raging hormones, but on top of that Romily has to give up the baby, a baby she has made with the man she loves. I think if the book had been solely from Romily’s point of view, I would have rooted for her and Ben to get together and live happily ever after, but as I knew Claire in depth too and knew how much she wanted a child, I was stuck in the middle, wanting both of them to get their happy endings but knowing it wasn’t possible.

Dear Thing is the first Julie Cohen book I’ve read but I definitely want to read more in the future as I really liked her writing style. It was warm and touching and I was quickly drawn into the lives of the characters and their stories.

The publishers have provided 3 copies of Dear Thing for me to give away. To enter, simply fill in the Rafflecopter form below.

The giveaway ends on Tuesday 20th May. Rafflecopter will then pick the winners at random, who will be notified via email before being announced on the blog.

This is a UK only giveaway.

Good luck!

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway